


Hearts in the Shadows

by SpiritGazer



Category: Fantasy - Fandom, Original Work
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-14
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-24 00:09:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7485663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritGazer/pseuds/SpiritGazer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shadow and light dance a deadly dance in the world of Norstair. These tales follow four youths growing up in this world, hoping to bolster the light with their strength. But sometimes, all the strength in the world can't fight back the inevitable flickering of a dying flame.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Meeting in the Shadows

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DanDreiberg](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DanDreiberg/gifts), [NightWalker83](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightWalker83/gifts), [ClockworkStoryteller](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkStoryteller/gifts), [TheFlamingAngel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFlamingAngel/gifts).



     “Do you understand the reason you have been brought here?” the gentle, yet fatherly, voice asked, as if the question were the center of the boy’s world. As if his answer would make or break how the rest of the conversation would flow.

     The black-haired youth simply sat and watched. His red, softly glowing eyes looked at the man in front of him. The royal blue suit seemed to be working attire, and the silvered accents seems a continuation of his the threads of silver hair in his otherwise oceanic shaded hair. The gentleman just simply watched back, looking for any sign of movement. The boy did nothing. Not a twitch. Not a tap. He hardly looked like he was breathing. He seemed completely still, doing nothing but watch, his eyes never leaving his interrogator’s frame. He took in the cane, a simple oak-colored piece with touches of silver leaf along the length, a hawk’s head of silver at the top for a handle.

     The older man’s eyes continued to be stuck on his guest. His red eyes were an oddity  of their own Adorned with a soft, unnatural glow that cast a light toward him, giving him full indication of where the boy was looking. And the man looked right back. He was shocked someone so small seemed so large in the black cloak he took off while inside. The rest of the teenagers ensemble was similarly colored, save his grey shirt that offset the rest of his otherwise unchanging clothing color. The biggest surprise was his this but aged frame. He was more fit than most of the officers who chased him, but looked as old as the green officers who joined the pursuit.

     A minute.

     Two minutes.

     A full five minutes passed before the youth replied.

     “Because you wanted to pick me up off the streets before I turned seventeen? Before you aren’t allowed to try and tell me what to do? You want to have an intervention and set me on the right path in this, the eleventh hour?” the young man replied with a touch of cynicism. He had some hope for the conversation, but any other time the powers that be had tried to get him on the right path, it went poorly.

     But the gentleman in front of him was different. His tone, his gestures. His patience. Most cops would have thrown him in the cell after a minute of not responding. This man looked like he would wait for an hour if it meant getting an answer.

     “Glad to see that wit is good for more than just running and hiding. Do you know how long we were after you tonight?” the man asked, expecting another long pause for an answer. The quick reply was surprising to him to say the least.

     “About an hour, hour fifteen. And you had about twenty guards all on the hunt. Well, twenty-one if you count the guy I had to knock out at the start of this. And of those guys, I took out two more on the way during the chase. And I didn’t even use my daggers. Can I at least get some credit for that much and have my daggers back?” The boy shifted in his chair, looking away for a moment to the small table behind his captor, his daggers and sheath belt sitting on it. Without meaning too, he reached towards where the two blades would lie, seeming uncomfortable without them by his side. His discomfort was obvious. The older gentleman quickly picked up on the fact that talking was not his strongest skill.

     “And might I add that four more were out of this chase because they simply couldn’t keep up with your pace. The man said pointing his cane at the youth with a chuckle. But no, the daggers stay with me for the time being. But if you cooperate with me, instead of having to be turned over to the police chief, you can have them back tonight,” the man offered, though a hint of a threat laced his voice.

     “You have my attention.” the boy asked, gaze once again fixated on his captor. “But can I get something in return for all these questions you asked?” the trapped youth asked, dropping the quiet act in favor of acting a bit tougher. Trying to hide how much he hated having the spotlight on him.

“If it’s the question I think you plan to ask, Shane, then I will gladly answer. I am Headmaster Koren Windfury. Though that much I assume you had figured out by my attire and badge. I came here to discuss enrollment into my Lucerna Academy.” The Headmaster sat down across the table, the silence returning as Shane rolled around the information that was just given to him. After a few moments, the boy finally found what he wanted to say.

     “So, what do you want out of me?” Shane asked, leaning forward in a guarded manner, like he was preparing to make a deal. “I know that you run a well-known Academy, and part of your success comes from having people who follow the rules and care about learning. What makes you think a delinquent like me that you had to chase for over an hour would make excellent student material?” Shane replied, running the past two hours though his mind as he recalled the entire chase. The alleys he took. The streets he passed. The hiding spots that lasted all of five minutes before he had to move again. The slip up was clear in his mind as he recalled  the moment he finally failed. Turning down a normally bustling street. That night, it was empty. Almost like they expected him to run there and had. . . “You set this up?” The realization finally dawned on Shane’s face as the Headmaster smiled.

     “See. I knew you were clever. Like your father. And mother,” Koren replied simply. “And judging by your face, you didn’t know I worked with your parents.”

     Shane sat with his jaw slightly open, though he tried his best to play off the shock. It was obvious just from his eyes darting around as if looking for answers in the room. “Lots of people knew my parents. Part of the tragedy when they passed was that so many people knew them, and me. But no one I knew would take me in, except my best friend’s dad.” The angered youth replied, trying to regain his puffed up appearance. “And because he was single, it was determined that it would be too much for one man. And people wonder why I ran,” Shane ended with some disgust, and expected another long lecture of how running didn’t fix anything.

     Koren waited a moment to speak, knowing his next statement would most likely be unexpected.“I’ll shock you for a moment. You were right. Running was the best response that you could have come up with to being sent away from the people you knew. Your world was being torn away. First your parents, then your best friend, then the people who could tell you about your parents. And for that, I personally apologize. If I had known more about the situation, I would have made it a personal job to get you in the right home,” Koren responded, watching as a slack jawed Shane looked on dumbfounded. “But don’t misunderstand me. That wasn’t truly the best solution. But for as old as you were, and what you had given to you, it was the best you could come up with. But, how did you get those daggers back?”

     Shane shifted again when he was told that he wasn’t totally in the right, but his defensive walls began to crumble when he was told that it was at least reasonable at his age. The tough guy visage cracked enough for the experienced Headmaster to begin to slip past the defenses. “They kept them in the orphanage. Locked up in a safe in the head mother’s office. She never locked the door so people could talk to her. I snuck in at night, picked the lock, and took them out. Then I closed the door and relocked it. That was all I took. Ask her yourself. Nothing else was stolen.”

     “I know. I’ve talked with her already. That’s how I got your records.” the Headmaster replied, pulling out a suitcase and opening it up to reveal a small stack of papers. “And the best friend you mentioned was, Dawn? Dawn Silvered-Pelt. You know she is attending my school, the Academy I mentioned a moment ago.” The Headmaster looked at Shane with a curiosity in his eyes. To see what Shane would do. To see if he had pierced the right chip in the wall.

     “That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You want me to be a student, don’t you?” The dark haired youth began to piece together the clues that were slowly being dropped. To make sense of the offer that was in front of him. And with that, he unknowingly dropped his guard completely. Exposing at his core that he wanted a purpose, someone to give him a goal.

     “Again. That wit shows through strong as ever.” Koren paced over to Shane, sticking a hand in his pocket to produce a key. “Now. I will give you back those daggers on one condition. You come with me tonight. You go to my school. And we will talk details there.” Headmaster Windfury offered, pointing the key at the manacles on Shane’s wrist

     “You want _me_ to come to Boreas? The Academy of the North?” Shane looked on, still with shock on his face. The chance to get his daggers back didn’t even matter at that point. “Why?”

     Koren merely stood there. Watching. The expression on his face as hard to read as a statue.

     A minute.

     Two minutes.

     Three minutes.

     Eventually he broke the silence, with a response that shook Shane beyond the cracks in his walls. A response that made him willingly expose his real personality. The part of him that wanted help, despite the tough guy ruse. To willingly stick it out and silently ask for Koren to be the one to help him. “Because I feel I owe you. And your parents. It’s a matter of pride. Reputation. And because you deserve this. You earned this tonight, with that display of effort and skill to evade us. And because we need people like you in the Academy. People who have seen the dark side. Hearts that lived in the shadows. Because we need people who understand it, and can fight it with that knowledge. We can train a student to be the greatest fighter, but if they don’t know when to fight, where to fight, and when to run, it doesn’t matter. We need people who know the darkness, so that they can stop the darkness before it starts.”

     Shane felt weak for a moment. He had hardly stood and he was already back in his chair. The chase had hardly worn on him. But this. This call to help. And the acknowledgement of his parents, of who they were, and where he had been left in life. He simply sat for several long minutes, what seemed like an eternity in his mind. The rest of the dialogue flowed through his head. Why they needed him. What he was being called to do. His father had been a leader, and now he was being called to lead. But, but how could he? He never got along with people. He only managed to hold a conversation with this man because he could play the tough guy. The moment his walls crumbled, he went back to silence.

     “I know this is all a lot for you. But how about his? You come back with me, and you will have a week to think it over. If I read my transcripts right, the first year students will arrive in a week. They show up early to get a tour of the school. You have until they come to think things over. I’ll even inform Mr. Silvered-Pelt of your request for lodging until then. I’m sure he will accommodate. He cares about you, just as much as Dawn does. She has voiced to me before coming to the school that she only regretted being here without you.” The Headmaster walked over and unlocked the shackles before returning to his side of the table where he stood at the door, reaching to open.

     “A week?” Shane looked up finally, not even glancing at the daggers that were out in the open for him to grab without issue.

     “A week.” Koren turned back towards Shane looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

     Shane stood up, walked over to the table with his daggers, and looked them over. The crow wings that made the handles stuck out from the sheath, the beak that was the blade tucked up inside. “I’ll have your answer by then. Good enough for you?”

     Koren simply chuckled, and gestured towards the table with a sign of permission. Shane watched the Headmaster pick up his suitcase before walking out and talking to the sheriff outside the door, leaving it open for Shane to hear. “He is going to be coming with me. Is that alright with you?”

     The tall, muscular man looked over Koren, then over to Shane before giving his halfhearted response: “I suppose. Just, don’t ask my men to go on a wild goose chase like that again. Not unless you want to come up with a great idea like emptying the street again.” The sheriff begrudgingly walked off, out of Shane’s view as he wrapped the familiar second belt around his body, just above his waist.

     “Glad to see that it still is comfortable for you. We haven’t a far distance to get to the Silvered-Pelt residence. Care to join me?” Headmaster Windfury stuck his hand out to guide Shane down the hallway.

     “Yeah. It’s funny you say that. The street you guys emptied to catch me is the street they live on. I was going to. . .” Shane stopped sharply as his mind put the last piece of the puzzle together, seeing the full picture in front of him. And it gave him a look of what kind of man he was talking to. “That’s how you knew to empty it!” Shane looked at Koren with shock, and a bit of respect.

     “I know how people work, much better than people give me credit for.” The older gentleman followed as Shane walked down the hall he was directed towards, reaching the outside of the station and finding a black car waiting for them.

     “You really were confident I would take the position,” Shane said as he entered the back seat, as he was joined by the Headmaster.

     “Call it a vote of confidence,” he replied before looking at the driver. “Take us to the Silver-Pelt home. We have some discussing to do there.” Koren promptly gave the order as the car drove off into the night. The darkness seemed to consume the black vehicle as it drove into the shadows of the city, cruising through the familiar town as Shane began thinking about the offer he had just been given.


	2. A Drive in the Night

     Shane had been deep in thought the whole car ride. What to tell her. How to make up for the time lost. What he should tell Mr. Silvered-Pelt. Whether or not to accept the offer. The “arrest” and what it meant. His gaze shifted uncomfortably from window to window, avoiding eye contact with the Headmaster the whole time. Just when his questions had all lined up with which to answer first, the deeper-voiced Headmaster next to him spoke up.

     “We are here, it appears. Don’t worry about the police visit. I’ll handle that. And I will talk to Mr. Silvered-Pelt. Something tells me you have enough explaining to do with your friend Dawn, right?” Headmaster Koren asked with a slight grin on his face as he adjusted his cane to get out of the car. He quickly stood up and tapped on the window, signaling the driver to follow inside with a briefcase that Shane had failed to notice sitting on the front seat.

     “Thank you for that,” Shane said as he followed out the car, bowing his head slightly in a show of gratitude. The pair made their way up the stairs as the driver pulled the car into a space in the street and quickly followed them with the briefcase. Shane reached up with a hand towards the familiar door knocker. The same knocker that his father had installed with Mr. Silvered-Pelt. The bear paw print as a base, with a simple metal loop ending in a large tooth for the knocker. The red door stood out against the dark, forest green wall that made the porch door frame. Most of the house was a softer grey color, but the front porch was Mr. Silvered-Pelt’s work of art. The part he wanted to look distinct, and welcoming to the outside.

     “I’ll be there in a moment,” the familiar baritone yelled from inside the house. The sound of footsteps coming through the front door was all too familiar to Shane, who shifted side to side as he waited. When the door opened, he felt as if he were back to being ten years old. The six foot eight inches man opened the door, his thick, silver head of hair as grizzled as ever. Shane was above average in height, just barely crossing the six foot line, but even he felt short compared to the giant and well muscled man who looked on in shock at the guest at his door. “Well, I was thinking it wouldn’t be long before we saw you, Shane, but your two guest here were not expected,” the near goliath said, raising an arm to scratch his neck as he looked at his three guests. “Um. . . Please, come inside.”

     “Thank you, Mr. Silvered-Pelt. I guess I should more properly introduce myself. I am Headmaster Koren Windfury. I am in charge of the Lucerna Academy your daughter plans to attend in about a week. I was also a former Shadowhunter. Part of how I knew Shane’s parents. Part of why I’m here really.” the Headmaster asked, having to look up at the large man, standing a full head and shoulders shorter.

     “Ah, yes. Um. . . I wasn’t expecting guests tonight. Sorry if things seems like a bit of a mess.” Darnestor commented as he began looking around the coat room as if worried a huge monster were around the corner.

     “Well, yes. It has been an interesting night for all of us tonight. Seeing as we didn’t get a good chance to meet at the initiation at Boreas, this will prove to be a good chance. May we enter?” Koren asked with a gesture of his hand, keeping a professional air about him.

     “Oh, yes. I’m Darnestor. Dawn’s father. Which reminds me, Dawn! Come down real quick!” Darnestor yelled up the stairs, his hearty growl unsurprising to Shane. One of the few Fera he knew and talked to, along with Dawn. The more animal nature was very obvious in his fatherly tendencies towards both Dawn and Shane. “You will probably be a little shocked.” Darnestor quickly added while the group waited.

     “One second,” Dawn yelled downstairs, her voice almost exactly how Shane remembered. She sounded a little older, a little more alto to her voice. She had a similar edge to her voice like her dad’s, almost like a whispered growl when she raised her voice.

     It was only a few moments before she started walking down. Her usual lavender attire was a welcomed familiar sight. The tomboyish outfit fit her well as she moved quickly down the stairs. The soft lights of the stairway caught the subtle arm hair that she kept unshaved, giving off an almost angelic glow. She carefully gripped the railway to avoid leaving claw marks on her way down. Finally her long locks of hair came into view, framing her face like a picture. A picture of bright, happy eyes that quickly narrowed as she reached the bottom. The object of her attention quickly moving to Shane.

     Dawn pointed at Shane with her eyes, the glare nearly paralyzing while Shane stood there as his best friend walked toward him, her sharp claws all the more evident this close. Dawn stood in front of him fuming, a low growl in her throat. And Shane replied the best way he knew. He turned his left cheek towards her and waited in anticipation. Without much thought she brought up her hand and stuck his left cheek, making his face a little more red color now from the strike.

     “D—Dawn, please,” Darnestor said, sounding almost nervous doing so. “Was that really necessary?”

     Shane smiled down at Dawn, rubbing his red cheek, a smirk across his face. “It’s fine. I deserved that one.” Dawn continued to bore holes into him. His smirk eventually shrank into a small smile. “Sorry for the wait.”

     Without warning, Dawn jumped forward and embraced Shane, wrapping her arms around his neck as she pulled him down to her level. Shane returned the embrace, though he felt light headed as she squeezed as hard as she could, as if Dawn expected him to simply run away already.

     “I’m glad to see you, too. Even after the slap,” Shane said, trying to stand up, only to have Dawn hang from his neck in the tight embrace.

     “Right. So, Dad, what was it you were saying about—“ The words barely left her mouth as she turned and faced the smiling Headmaster with a gasp. “H—Headmaster Windfury! I—I didn’t realize you were here! I’m so sorry about that whole display—”

     Koren quickly put a hand up in reassurance. “Think nothing of it. I hope you can channel that same energy and emotion when you arrive at my Academy,”

     “Koren was saying something about knowing Shane’s parents back when they were Lucerna. Part of the Shadowhunters with the Reapers huh?” Darnestor asked, remembering the street term for the group of Lucerna Shane’s parents had been in.

     “Yes. I was once a field worker, if you will. Your use of the street name makes me suspect you were part of them, too. If you had been a Lucerna of a different class, you would have called it ‘Mobile Offensive’ to make it seem less fancy. Or at least that’s what people do nowadays. They like downplaying it by being official. Makes us less impressive.” Koren smiled as he looked over Darnestor, the man an obvious candidate for the more rigorous program even now.

     “Yes. I was. That’s how I met The Reaper family. Must have been after you were pushed up the ladder.” Darnestor laughed, the hearty chuckle loud from his large chest.

     “I would say. That was quite a number of years ago. Close to fifteen now, actually. Which reminds me. I have some ‘official’ business to do. And it involves you and Shane here. Is there somewhere private for them to go as you and I discuss a few things? The youngsters have plenty of catching up to do, I’m sure.” Koren laughed as he waved towards Shane and Dawn with his cane, reminding them how young they still were compared to the rest of the room.

     “Uh, yeah. Dawn’s room is still set with the second bed. Never got taken out since your last visit. You two run up there and Headmaster Windfury and I will discuss this ‘business’ he brought up,” Darnestor said with a slight confusion in his voice at the end.

     “Okay, Dad. You know where to find us,” Dawn said as she grabbed Shane’s arm and nearly dragged him up the stairs, the Headmaster and Darnestor fading from view as the stairway ceiling blocked his line of sight. Shane once again began rolling through everything he had to talk to Dawn about as they made their way to her bedroom.

 


End file.
